On the Next Major Spoilers Podcast: Pedro and Me

This week on the Major Spoilers Podcast, the crew takes a look at Judd Winick’s Pedro and Me.

Pedro and Me is an autobiographical graphic novel by Judd Winick regarding his friendship with AIDS educator Pedro Zamora after the two met while on the reality television series, The Real World: San Francisco. It was published in September 2000.

As always, the Major Spoilers Podcast is nothing without comments from great readers and listeners like you. You can use the comment section below, drop us a voice mail by calling (785) 727-1939, or record your comments and send it as an MP3 file in an email to podcast@majorspoilers.com.

Hereâ€™s your chance to be heard on the show! Give us your thoughts on this trade paperback, or if you want to share your thoughts on the state of the comic book industry, or anything else that might be on your mind drop us a line. Only the most awesome comments (good or bad) make it on the show, so get your stuff to us right away!

Share this:

The Author

Stephen Schleicher

Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment.

You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...

But it is a comic… And who said the show had to be about recent pop-culture. The show featured some “classic” Spiderman from the 70s just recently. Not that I didn’t do a double-take when I saw the post, but hell this intrigues me.

If you don’t want to listen, then that is your choice, but please don’t confuse your idea of what Major Spoilers is, with what Major Spoilers is really about…We talk about comics. Some are going to be old, some are going to be new. Some are going to be about topics you don’t care about, while others might be so off someone’s radar they know nothing about it. Some might be about topics you dispise, while others are going to be passionate about what we are covering. This week, the selected comic affected many people, and was the comic push that got Winick where he is today.

I think my problem with this is that this ‘push that got Winick where he is today’ is the only schtick Winick seemed to have and, before he managed to wear it out, it got really, really tired.

Every comic he was on, he made a point to introduce a character that was either gay (Terry Berg in Green Lantern, Annisa Pierce/Thunder’s and Grace Choi/Grace’s relationship in Outsiders), HIV-positive (Mia Dearden/Speedy in Green Arrow) or some variation thereon (the main character in Vertigo’s ‘Blood and Water’ series).

In and of itself, his stories weren’t bad. I’ve read, and enjoyed, a lot of his work in the DC Universe. But, when you hear he’s the next writer on a book and the audience’s first reaction is wondering who will come out of the closet or test positive for HIV, that’s generally a pretty good indication that everyone knows what cards you’re going to play even before the hands are dealt, you know?

I agree with Jacin on my problems with Winick as a writer since this came out.

But about the story itself, I highly remember watching the Real World where this took place, and being so intrigued about the show, it’s the epitome of what the show is supposed to be about, not like how it is now. Watching Pedro’s struggle and him fighting though the diesease, and him loving his family and friends throughout the series, and his speeches.

This is such a great companion piece for those that have seen the Real World: San Francisco. I’ll give him credit, he could’ve gone a lot into the conflict between Puck and Pedro, but he really didn’t do it, which was good, it kept its focus on the big picture of Pedro’s story.

I hoped this was some kind of prank but I checked the calendar and it’s definitely not April or even the first of the month yet. With all the story arcs the big two have for discussion not to mention all the smaller companies putting out OGNs, limited and full series do we need to scrape barrel this hard for discussion? What’s next Blue Water’s biographical comic line?

I hoped this was some kind of prank but I checked the calendar and itâ€™s definitely not April or even the first of the month yet. With all the story arcs the big two have for discussion not to mention all the smaller companies putting out OGNs, limited and full series do we need to scrape barrel this hard for discussion? Whatâ€™s next Blue Waterâ€™s biographical comic line?

Wow, I was wondering how long we’d go till someone would either hate on this blindly because (a) it’s Judd Winnick before he became a burnt-out one trick pony or (b) out of good ol’ fashioned homophobia. Turns out I came by to have both! Good to know that the story of a man dying of a horrific illness well before his time isn’t anywhere as artistically or ethically valid as Siege to comicdom – speaks so well of us.

“Wow, I was wondering how long weâ€™d go till someone would either hate on this blindly because (a) itâ€™s Judd Winnick before he became a burnt-out one trick pony or (b) out of good olâ€™ fashioned homophobia. Turns out I came by to have both!”

… uh, what?

The ‘hate’ on Judd Winick (if there was any here, which I think is a stretch at best) is because he became a ‘burnt-out one trick pony’ and, perhaps it’s just because I’ve been around actual homophobia (rather than just someone claiming innocuous comments were such), I don’t see any homophobia here at all.

Re-read John I-G and Listener #whatever’s comments and tell me that they aren’t fueled by either blind Winnick hate or fear of teh gay. After all, nothing tells me John’s a class act quite like saying “Screw you, dead guy! You aren’t what I want to hear about!” And I’ve been around actual homophobia, too, which is why I can’t stand ANY of it.

*** Newsflash: This just in … you can apparently not give a rat’s ass about a deceased reality television personality from the early 90s (or a discussion on a comics website about the autobiographical graphic novel from a decade ago written by one of his friends) and not be homophobic. And, in a possibly related item, people are also apparently still entitled to their own opinions … more as it develops. ***

I read John I.G.’s comments and Listener #8524’s comments and didn’t get anything from them like what you got from them and certainly didn’t feel any sort of desire to blindly call either of them out for having motivations that, in reality, I have no clue about.

I think you have to read a whole lot of extra into the tone of any of the posts here to find anything even remotely describable as ‘blind Winick hatred’ or ‘fear of teh gay’ and, even we could manage to jump through those hoops, certainly nothing worth reacting to as virulently as you did.

And, just for future reference, by claiming everything is homophobia, you only serve to lessen the impact of a legitimate claim when something actually is.